Symbiosis On Enterprise
by Carnage
Summary: This could end up a T/T fic, or A/T, haven't decided. All about how an alien takes over... And I've updated a little... so please review! Sorry, but I have no clue how to use the new Fanfiction.Net, so chapters may be out of sync.
1. Default Chapter

Star-Trek: Enterprise  
  
Prologue  
  
Author's note: Another fan-fiction by moi! This one will be fairly short, only the length of a normal Enterprise episode (5-10 chapters)(, I hope, so hang with me. This won't become long and boring like the rest of 'em, or even be cut off halfway through.  
  
Disclaimers: I don't own Enterprise, never have, never will. I will owe Paramount any money I make from this, though that will be zilch, nada, zero, so I have made no rash promises! All characters etc. belong to the brilliant minds that created them. May they live long and prosper!  
  
Hoshi looked up from her panel, held the receiver to her ear, and shook her head.  
  
Archer sighed. Long, and deep.  
  
They had been travelling through space for nearly a month since the connection with the Andorians again, and they hadn't encountered a single interesting phenomenon. Not one. No communications, not even a radio signal from the Earth's past messages. Sure, they could use the Vulcan maps and star charts, but where was the exploration then? It took the fun out of things then, like Trip said. The only bit of excitement that Archer had seen for quite a while was when the engines shut down for four hours. He had decided then to set a course for an area of space where the Vulcans had thought there was Dilithium crystals, in case they ran out. But nope, the Vulcans had royally stuck it up them again. What kind of area of space could there be that didn't hold something in? It just wasn't possible. It wasn't natural.  
  
He sighed again. Now he was just being paranoid.  
  
T'Pol raised an eyebrow at him, then returned to her tasks. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Damn, she could be so annoying at times. She just stood there, doing calculations and watching sensors that she had newly installed. From time to time, like when the Captain sighed or fidgeted, she would look at him and raise an eyebrow disdainly. That was the height of her emotional pinnacle. The only bit of humour he had had from T'Pol the last month, no, the last year, was when her nasal block had stopped functioning for a week. Boy, she had been a riot then. He groaned inwardly, realising his thoughts were turning as black as space, because humour should not come from misery, no matter the circumstances.  
  
Trip entered the bridge, bringing with him a dusty, grimy smell and quite a few stains. He walked to a console and started to tap away at it. Archer, in his severely bored state, saw that wherever Trip touched, a nice puddle of oil gathered. It wasn't his fault that he had fixed the engines again only a few hours before, and wasn't even off-duty for another few hours, but, dammit, he should get his clothes cleaned before he came to the bridge! Archer glanced toward T'Pol, who was only now realising Trip was in the room. He caught her eye, then cleared his throat as Trip turned to leave the bridge.  
  
"Uh, Trip?" Trip turned and stood to attention.  
  
"Yessum, Cap'n?" he asked in his drawl.  
  
"Is there anyway to make you look, well, respectable?"  
  
"Excuse me, Cap'n? Did you just say what I think you said?" Trip growled, and suddenly seemed a whole lot taller. "Well excuse me for fixing th'engines! They can just go fry next time, which is what they're like at the moment! I come off-duty in a few hours, Cap'n, and then, only then will I clean these overalls! Now I'd better get back to engineering…"  
  
"Get cleaned up. Now! That's an order, Commander!" Archer roared at him.  
  
"If I had nothing better to do than sit in that chair, Cap'n, then I wouldn't get much dirtier, either!" Silence fell upon the bridge, and Tucker immediately fell silent. He had crossed the line. Archer got out of his chair.  
  
"What did you say, Commander?!" he said quietly.  
  
"Nuthin, Cap'n…" Trip moaned.  
  
"Excuse me, Gentlemen," came a voice across the room.  
  
Both the men shot daggers at T'Pol, who just stood with her arms folded and with a look of amusement on her face. She knew she had to break up this fight, which was only caused by their tiredness with being kept in cramped spaces. This would never have happened on a Vulcan ship, but she had learnt a thing or two on Enterprise. She tapped her control panel for emphasis.  
  
"We have a planet, Gentlemen. Would you like to study it, or would you prefer to continue on your present course of action?" She looked at them with a steady gaze, recognising the familiar habits of boredom in humans, and tapped her console again. Their eyes were glazed over now, and they shuffled weakly over to the console. They mumbled their apologies and looked at the console.  
  
The planet she had detected was an M-class planet, capable of supporting life, and looked about the same as Earth. Archer looked at Trip. Trip looked at Archer. They grinned and looked at T'Pol.  
  
"Say, T'Pol. How would you like to come down to the planet?"  
  
"I would, indeed, Captain." Archer nodded, and then signalled for 2 more ensigns, including Hoshi, to accompany them. T'Pol felt she needed to give a reason. "The Vulcan's have never come across this planet before, and it would be an excellent opportunity to collect data. Unless, of course, we have other things to do?"  
  
They glared at her. 


	2. Chapter 3 (on a roll!)

1 Star-Trek: Enterprise  
  
Authors Note: Not much to say, except thanks for all the reviews.  
  
He couldn't scream. He couldn't cry out for help. In fact, due to the fact that a very large slug-type creature was blocking his air passage, the ensign could not do anything towards breathing either, and quite sensibly started to choke. He staggered about, gasping around the huge purple thing that was quite vigorously trying to reach his stomach via the most convenient route: his oesophagus. He ran for a few minutes, as more of the creature disappeared from his view. It had a slight calming effect until he realised what that meant. It meant that more of the creature was inside him.  
  
That was when he panicked.  
  
He made a slight choking noise, and the ensign ran against a wall very quickly. Unfortunately, the thing in his mouth was made of something very rubbery, and bounced off the rough stone wall without a scratch. He tried pulling it out, but it wriggled so much that he couldn't get a proper grip. He looked around desperately for something anything, when suddenly his asphyxiated brain said, "Sunlight".  
  
For five seconds he stood and thought about that. What was a creature like this doing down here if it could get outside, where there was loads of animals to slam down their throats. He ran like a bomb was going to explode, and red dots did explode – in front of his eyes, as the blood rushed to his brain, and he thought, oh Good God, I'm going to die. Wait a minute… God can't be good if I'm going to die. He must be blue… I wonder what colour cheese tastes like?  
  
He realised on the last thought that he was going slightly insane from the trauma, and lack of oxygen, to his brain. He broke through the curtain of vines in a frenzy, and in that moment, the creature finished entering him. He felt a dull ache in his stomach, which was from… was from… Now, danged if he could remember. Probably just a really bad sandwich he had eaten before they had…  
  
Images of eating entered his mind, and he staggered to a red tree, held himself against it, and promptly threw up over a small mole-like creature, except with no back legs, minding it's business and tending to its brood under the tree. The Ensign threw up again, this time trailing slime from his mouth to the ground, and he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He was surprised, and scared, to see blood on his arm.  
  
"Oh, man," he moaned, just as Ensign Bolden entered the clearing, calling his name. Bolden rushed over, as his friend puked up all over his newly polished shoes. He groaned, and then helped his friend up.  
  
"You'd better have a damn good reason for puking on my Italian loafers, buddy, or I'll turn you into a loaf of bread!" He pulled his friend up, an arm supporting his shoulders, and opened his tricorder. The other ensign just stared into space, a bit dazed.  
  
"Captain Archer, sir? I need to take Ensign Traywait back up to Enterprise, sir. He's, uh, feeling a bit ill." Ensign Traywait puked up audibly, just to back up his statement. Archer's voice groaned back flatly through the tricorder.  
  
"Alright, we're heading back. Phlox had better say it's an alien virus, or I'm gonna…" Archer seemed to realise he still had his tricorder on, and there was a frazzle as he switched it off. Bolden sighed as he dragged Ensign Traywait back to the clearing. He propped his friend against the side of the shuttle-pod, turning his head to one side, and kept a lookout for the rest of the crew, hardly thinking for a minute that his best friend was being slowly lobotomised.  
  
Ensign Traywait stood inside a huge cavern, huge, the hugest he'd ever been in. He floated in a fog, and it twirled around him. Sometimes it was the gentle caresses of loved ones, while at others it felt like demons were scratching at his skin with nails as sharp as, well, nails. He looked through the fog inside the cavern, and saw through it images that someone else was seeing… a huge slimy creature falling from the ceiling, tentacles whipping through the air…a trail of slime, mucus, and sick…gripping at walls and trees, coloured strange colours…walls of the cavern flashing past at immeasurable speed…  
  
Suddenly there was something else there with him. He screamed, as its purple tentacles wrapped around him. At first, he felt disgust, but then he felt a euphoria that he had never experienced, not even after the first time he had scored, not even when his mother had cooked hash brownies…remembering his mother brought on memories, some unbidden, some drawn to him by himself…faces, some he knew, some he had no idea about, and some that twisted and stretched until he wasn't sure if he knew them or not. He tried to scream again, but this time…this time…something was stopping him…something in his mouth…he looked down and saw a stinger, like the back end of a maggot, sticking out of his mouth…it disappeared in a moment, and then he screamed again, screamed, and opened his mouth wide, as the huge, purple, multi-tentacled monster ripped through the fog and slammed through his stomach, through him…  
  
He woke up in sickbay, trace memories of his strange dream, and threw up, straight into a metal bowl which was held in front of him by the knotted and whorled hand of Doctor Phlox. He muttered something under his breath, something like, "untidy humans…" and then patted him on the shoulder.  
  
"How do you feel, Ensign? I must say, you must feel quite dehydrated, as you have been sick nearly fifteen times in the last half hour alone!" he grinned his inane grin, and then turned to the Captain and said, "I'll have to keep him overnight for observation, and also I will have his stomach pumped. Maybe whatever is causing his fever is a viral agent indigenous to the aboriginal Fauna on the planet below. However, he has been delirious for the last –" Phlox was cut short by a burst of hysterical laughter originating from the table.  
  
"Delusions! Delusions goooood, so good, tentacles, monster, there's a MONSTER HERE! IT'S HERE! IT's Under my BEd! Help us all!! HELPME –" HE was interrupted by the fact that he had a very large syringe-gun stuck in his neck, and fell asleep.  
  
"Like I said, captain, he has been having violent delusions, in sleep and also in waking moments. I will conduct a full analysis and have the results in your ready room in the morning." He nodded his head, with no further need for discussion, and Archer glanced at his crewman before he left sickbay.  
  
Later that night, which, to Phlox, was the best time of the night, as he was undisturbed, he worked hard on his new assignment. He was studying the patients blood cells under a microscope when the computer beeped loudly, signalling that there was a fault, not with the machine, but with the patient. There was a large obstruction inside the patients stomach, near to the gastritis entrance, but also blocking the exit to the large intestine. How extraordinary!  
  
He pulled from the shelves around him the various pieces of equipment that he needed, and his overalls, as his pet kept screeching to the thin, cold air in the medical room. It always seemed to know when he was about to draw blood from a person. He had two theories: either it was telepathic, or else it had an extremely acute nose…if he could only find the nose…  
  
"Hush, sweetie, you just calm down. It's only a simple operation…" he muttered to the thing in the darkened cage, as he pulled on his gloves. He turned to his patient, and began the hour long procedure.  
  
An hour and a half later, and he was amazed at what he saw. There was another organism inside the Ensign, attached to the entrance to his oesophagus. How the man had been puking up, Phlox had no clue. The creature was purple, and about ½ a metre in length, which explained the blockage. It was covered in what looked like bluish-white veins, and its mouth was round, with sharp teeth levering it against the entrance to his throat. It had two large pincers on either side of its head, and had no eyes, at least, as far as he could see. It seemed in pain next to the light, and it was letting go of the stomach wall. He reached for the communicator on the wall, never taking his eyes off of it. It reared out of the Ensign's stomach, like the alien pupae, and immediately shoved half of its length down the alien doctors throat before he had even realised it was moving. His pet in the cage squealed, as the Doctor scattered millions of objects on his desk onto the floor, and he fell onto the floor, gasping. A few minutes later, there was silence. A hand raised itself shakily from the floor, and gripped the tabletop. Phlox's head, slightly swollen with a bump on his forehead, muttered, "Now how in the world did I end up down there? And why is Ensign Traywait cut up like a cucumber?!"  
  
TBC  
  
Reviews, anyone? The plot thickens, Inspector! 


	3. Chapter 2 (Redone)

Star-Trek: Enterprise  
  
Authors Note: Okay, have had enough complaints from people, so have redone the second chapter. I still have no clue how it became a frames page.  
  
Hoshi sat at the controls of the shuttle-pod, bored. The shuttle-pod had just entered the planets atmosphere, and she noted with a dull nod and tap at the keyboard the atmosphere content. 5/8 Nitrogen, 2/8 Oxygen and 1/8 CO2. Breathable, but predictable, because of the blue of the ozone layer. She sighed and looked around the cabin. T'Pol was seated, her legs crossed, working on a Pad. She seemed to do nothing but work nowadays. Hoshi teased her about it, but, not surprisingly, her being a Vulcan and all, got no response. She once received a slight twitch of the cheek, but that had been, oh, a few weeks now. To her, she privately thought that T'Pol had something on her mind, but was just working to get her mind off it. She wondered what thought could be so potent as to distract a Vulcan. She unconsciously shrugged. She never would be able to pry an answer out of the Vulcan. To T'Pols right sat Commander Tucker, who was enjoying a game of Rummy with the 2 ensigns that they had brought. She couldn't remember their names - they were ensigns, and also they worked in Engineering, meaning that she would probably never hear their names again. The 2 ensigns were playing a complicated game, and were teaching Tucker, who kept losing. "Dang, that's the fourth game in a row! What are you two, telepathic?!" he breathed in frustration. "No-" One ensign started. "Sir-" the second continued. "We're just really-" "Good friends," they finished together. They grinned at the aghast Tucker. "Hot diggidy, you two ARE telepathic!" he said in exasperation. The ensigns looked at each other. "Do you want to say it again, or shall I?" one said. "Nah, let him figure it out," his friend said, then turned to each other and began a new game, excluding Tucker. Tucker just looked towards Hoshi, flabbergasted. "Can you believe that? I mean-" She left him to continue babbling at his confusion as a beeping at the Conn attracted her attention. A point 2 degree misalignment of the port booster. Dull, dull, dull. Did nothing either funny or interesting happen on Enterprise, or was it just her? A loud snore attracted her attention. She looked to Archer, his cap over his eyes, mouth wide open, and sleeping - well, not soundly. She giggled, and caught a glimpse of laughter? in T'Pols eyes before she nudged Captain Archer awake. He started. "Huh? Wha? Who's attacking? Oh, it's just you," Archer said, stretching. "Have we landed yet?" "No, Captain, we are beginning the orbital entry sequence," Hoshi butted in. "So why in blazes-" he started, annoyed. "Because either atmospheric conditions are affecting my hearing, or else your nasal cavity needs re-modulating so that certain vibrations from the larynx does not disturb my work," T'Pol stated calmly. The two ensigns started laughing at the indignant look on their Captains face. He looked to Hoshi for help. She giggled. "Can you stop snoring, please?" she translated, laughing. He grinned, unhappily. "Fine, I'll keep myself awake. But I'm warning you," he said, waving a finger at the crew, "If I'm a bit uppity on the surface, it's your own fault." He crossed his arms sulkily as the rest of the shuttle burst out laughing, with the exception of T'Pol, who continued working despite the noise. Hoshi turned her face back to the Conn, smiling. This was what she had come to space for, not for exploration, or to seek out new metaphors on new languages, but for the friendliness and familiarity. For instance, Archer reminded her of her grandfather, an uptight old man who left no room for mistakes. She was rather fond of him, for his, self-admitted, bad habit of falling asleep in moving vehicles. She giggled to herself again, her spirit renewed by the hilarity of the situation as she began the sequence for orbital entry.  
  
When they landed, Archer left the ship first, wiping his eyes against the bright glare of the sun. Despite his words, he had fallen asleep again before they landed, and was extremely grumpy. But not even that could stop his euphoria at having landed on a planet with life! He grinned, and looked around at the environment that they had landed in. There was a large mountain range to the East, high enough to have both ice at the tip, and also have a spectacular brown colour about it. It seemed no trees grew on the mountain range, but still bordered the area they had landed in. About 20 metres in front of him, there were large purple-leaved trees, with what looked like small balls of wool skittering about between the leaves. Strangely enough, the planet didn't belong to a Solar System, and so had no sun, but it shone as brightly here as it did on Earth, maybe a bit brighter. He frowned, wondering where the light was coming from. There seemed to be a permanent layer of clouds in the sky, which may have been able to explain the light, but he decided to wait until T'Pol had finished her scans. He crossed his arms, tapped his foot, and then turned around to her. "Well?" he asked. "There is not much to talk about. It's an M-class planet, with a diverse eco-system, as proved by the animals in the trees and fish in the lake over there," she pointed behind them, where there was a quite large lake, with trees surrounding the whole circumference. They looked like trees, anyway. They were sure the weirdest looking trees that he had seen in a long time. They were wood at the base, but the branches seemed to be made of silk. They wrapped around each other, and broke off and broke off into so many different branches that he couldn't count them all. Also, the branches changed colour from brown all the way down the spectrum, until the end of each branch. The branches collected about 2 metres from the trees into little balls, not unlike beach balls with their colours. His attention was distracted by a small fish jumping from the lake, which, thankfully, was the right colour. He didn't have enough time to catch many details, but the fish seemed covered in slick, black scales. He turned back to T'Pol, and pointed at the sky. "Nothing much, eh? And how do you explain all the light if there's no Sun?" he asked. "I cannot give a reasonable explanation, although I am getting anomalous readings from both the woods on the far side of the lake, and also in the mountain range to the East." She consulted her tricorder again, and then said, "There seems to be a small spacecraft in a crater across the lake as well, though planet-wide scans showed no indication of intelligent life anywhere." Archer sighed. At least they might be able to discover a new species while here. "Right, Me, Trip and T'Pol will head for the mountains, while Hoshi, as language expert, will accompany the two ensigns. Enjoy yourself, Hoshi," he grinned at her, as she glared at him. She hated exploration. She cheered up at the prospect of at least figuring out a new language. Trip started up an argument with T'Pol, as usual, as they left. Archer just held up his hands in defeat, then tried to break up the two of them. Hoshi smiled, and turned to find the two ensigns on the grass, playing cards. A tamigochi hung from one wrist. She sighed, and stood with her hands on her hips. "You know, you two are going to be excellent bodyguards on this excursion." She muttered. They continued to play cards. "Gimme those!" she exclaimed crossly, and grabbed the pack. The two ensigns stared up at her with large eyes, like a deer's in a cars headlights. She pointed to the trees, and they meekly stood up and walked to the woods.  
  
Ensign Traywait grinned at his friend. They had only been walking in the woods for ten minutes, with Hoshi behind them, but Hoshi didn't know that one of them had another pack of cards, and another had a miniature Gameboy. Man, had those things got small. Walking through the woods was like walking through a kaleidoscope of colours. There were blues, greens, pinks, of all sorts. Why a tree would evolve with a red bark and blue leaves was anybody's guess. How did it even photosynthesise? He looked at the animals more, for even though they were brightly coloured as well, at least they were able to survive with them colours. Many butterflies floated through the air, and strange birds flitted through the leaves. He swore that an animal much like a lemur had stared at him through the gaps in a bush, but he missed it upon second look. Hoshi stopped them, and ushered them to silence. A hum filled the air. "You reckon that's the ship?" she asked. "Can't think of anything else it could be, Ma'am," his friend, Ensign Bolden answered politely. "Let's go see what it is. But first, what is that in your hair?" she pointed at him. Or rather, his head. "What?" he reached up, and grabbed - something. It was blue and green, iridescent like a peacock, and had large, membrane-like, see-through wings. What really caught his attention was the many legs, and huge long needle that was its snout. A tongue flicked out, covered with something red. Or else it was it's natural tongue colour. At the moment, he didn't care, it had been eating his blood! "AAAHHH!" He screamed, at the same time as it trilled loudly, almost in mockery of him, beat its many wings and flew off. "Oh, no, you don't!" he shouted, and chased after it, ignoring his friends and Hoshi's calls. He chased it for many long minutes, and when it finally flew into a vine- covered hole, he zoomed right in after it. It took his eyes many long minutes to adjust to the almost complete darkness, but he gasped when he did. On a rock directly in front of him, lay a long, purple something, its body heaving in and out. It was about half a metre in length, completely purple, with long, blue and white veins covering its entire body. It looked to be in agony, and the slab underneath it was almost its death bed. The bug forgotten, Traywait walked over to the creature. He wondered if he could help it in any way. The creature shuddered, and he swore he heard a gasp for air. As he walked farther in, the creature turned towards him. If anything with that many teeth, suckers and tendrils could look more surprised, he would give it a gold star. He screamed, turned and ran for the entrance, just as it leaped for him, wrapped around his head and slammed itself into his wide open-mouth. 


	4. Chapter 4

Star-Trek: Enterprise  
  
Authors Note: Okay, have had enough complaints from people, so have redone the second chapter. I still have no clue how it became a frames page.  
  
Hoshi sat at the controls of the shuttle-pod, bored. The shuttle-pod had just entered the planets atmosphere, and she noted with a dull nod and tap at the keyboard the atmosphere content. 5/8 Nitrogen, 2/8 Oxygen and 1/8 CO2. Breathable, but predictable, because of the blue of the ozone layer. She sighed and looked around the cabin. T'Pol was seated, her legs crossed, working on a Pad. She seemed to do nothing but work nowadays. Hoshi teased her about it, but, not surprisingly, her being a Vulcan and all, got no response. She once received a slight twitch of the cheek, but that had been, oh, a few weeks now. To her, she privately thought that T'Pol had something on her mind, but was just working to get her mind off it. She wondered what thought could be so potent as to distract a Vulcan. She unconsciously shrugged. She never would be able to pry an answer out of the Vulcan. To T'Pols right sat Commander Tucker, who was enjoying a game of Rummy with the 2 ensigns that they had brought. She couldn't remember their names - they were ensigns, and also they worked in Engineering, meaning that she would probably never hear their names again. The 2 ensigns were playing a complicated game, and were teaching Tucker, who kept losing. "Dang, that's the fourth game in a row! What are you two, telepathic?!" he breathed in frustration. "No-" One ensign started. "Sir-" the second continued. "We're just really-" "Good friends," they finished together. They grinned at the aghast Tucker. "Hot diggidy, you two ARE telepathic!" he said in exasperation. The ensigns looked at each other. "Do you want to say it again, or shall I?" one said. "Nah, let him figure it out," his friend said, then turned to each other and began a new game, excluding Tucker. Tucker just looked towards Hoshi, flabbergasted. "Can you believe that? I mean-" She left him to continue babbling at his confusion as a beeping at the Conn attracted her attention. A point 2 degree misalignment of the port booster. Dull, dull, dull. Did nothing either funny or interesting happen on Enterprise, or was it just her? A loud snore attracted her attention. She looked to Archer, his cap over his eyes, mouth wide open, and sleeping - well, not soundly. She giggled, and caught a glimpse of laughter? in T'Pols eyes before she nudged Captain Archer awake. He started. "Huh? Wha? Who's attacking? Oh, it's just you," Archer said, stretching. "Have we landed yet?" "No, Captain, we are beginning the orbital entry sequence," Hoshi butted in. "So why in blazes-" he started, annoyed. "Because either atmospheric conditions are affecting my hearing, or else your nasal cavity needs re-modulating so that certain vibrations from the larynx does not disturb my work," T'Pol stated calmly. The two ensigns started laughing at the indignant look on their Captains face. He looked to Hoshi for help. She giggled. "Can you stop snoring, please?" she translated, laughing. He grinned, unhappily. "Fine, I'll keep myself awake. But I'm warning you," he said, waving a finger at the crew, "If I'm a bit uppity on the surface, it's your own fault." He crossed his arms sulkily as the rest of the shuttle burst out laughing, with the exception of T'Pol, who continued working despite the noise. Hoshi turned her face back to the Conn, smiling. This was what she had come to space for, not for exploration, or to seek out new metaphors on new languages, but for the friendliness and familiarity. For instance, Archer reminded her of her grandfather, an uptight old man who left no room for mistakes. She was rather fond of him, for his, self-admitted, bad habit of falling asleep in moving vehicles. She giggled to herself again, her spirit renewed by the hilarity of the situation as she began the sequence for orbital entry.  
  
When they landed, Archer left the ship first, wiping his eyes against the bright glare of the sun. Despite his words, he had fallen asleep again before they landed, and was extremely grumpy. But not even that could stop his euphoria at having landed on a planet with life! He grinned, and looked around at the environment that they had landed in. There was a large mountain range to the East, high enough to have both ice at the tip, and also have a spectacular brown colour about it. It seemed no trees grew on the mountain range, but still bordered the area they had landed in. About 20 metres in front of him, there were large purple-leaved trees, with what looked like small balls of wool skittering about between the leaves. Strangely enough, the planet didn't belong to a Solar System, and so had no sun, but it shone as brightly here as it did on Earth, maybe a bit brighter. He frowned, wondering where the light was coming from. There seemed to be a permanent layer of clouds in the sky, which may have been able to explain the light, but he decided to wait until T'Pol had finished her scans. He crossed his arms, tapped his foot, and then turned around to her. "Well?" he asked. "There is not much to talk about. It's an M-class planet, with a diverse eco-system, as proved by the animals in the trees and fish in the lake over there," she pointed behind them, where there was a quite large lake, with trees surrounding the whole circumference. They looked like trees, anyway. They were sure the weirdest looking trees that he had seen in a long time. They were wood at the base, but the branches seemed to be made of silk. They wrapped around each other, and broke off and broke off into so many different branches that he couldn't count them all. Also, the branches changed colour from brown all the way down the spectrum, until the end of each branch. The branches collected about 2 metres from the trees into little balls, not unlike beach balls with their colours. His attention was distracted by a small fish jumping from the lake, which, thankfully, was the right colour. He didn't have enough time to catch many details, but the fish seemed covered in slick, black scales. He turned back to T'Pol, and pointed at the sky. "Nothing much, eh? And how do you explain all the light if there's no Sun?" he asked. "I cannot give a reasonable explanation, although I am getting anomalous readings from both the woods on the far side of the lake, and also in the mountain range to the East." She consulted her tricorder again, and then said, "There seems to be a small spacecraft in a crater across the lake as well, though planet-wide scans showed no indication of intelligent life anywhere." Archer sighed. At least they might be able to discover a new species while here. "Right, Me, Trip and T'Pol will head for the mountains, while Hoshi, as language expert, will accompany the two ensigns. Enjoy yourself, Hoshi," he grinned at her, as she glared at him. She hated exploration. She cheered up at the prospect of at least figuring out a new language. Trip started up an argument with T'Pol, as usual, as they left. Archer just held up his hands in defeat, then tried to break up the two of them. Hoshi smiled, and turned to find the two ensigns on the grass, playing cards. A tamigochi hung from one wrist. She sighed, and stood with her hands on her hips. "You know, you two are going to be excellent bodyguards on this excursion." She muttered. They continued to play cards. "Gimme those!" she exclaimed crossly, and grabbed the pack. The two ensigns stared up at her with large eyes, like a deer's in a cars headlights. She pointed to the trees, and they meekly stood up and walked to the woods.  
  
Ensign Traywait grinned at his friend. They had only been walking in the woods for ten minutes, with Hoshi behind them, but Hoshi didn't know that one of them had another pack of cards, and another had a miniature Gameboy. Man, had those things got small. Walking through the woods was like walking through a kaleidoscope of colours. There were blues, greens, pinks, of all sorts. Why a tree would evolve with a red bark and blue leaves was anybody's guess. How did it even photosynthesise? He looked at the animals more, for even though they were brightly coloured as well, at least they were able to survive with them colours. Many butterflies floated through the air, and strange birds flitted through the leaves. He swore that an animal much like a lemur had stared at him through the gaps in a bush, but he missed it upon second look. Hoshi stopped them, and ushered them to silence. A hum filled the air. "You reckon that's the ship?" she asked. "Can't think of anything else it could be, Ma'am," his friend, Ensign Bolden answered politely. "Let's go see what it is. But first, what is that in your hair?" she pointed at him. Or rather, his head. "What?" he reached up, and grabbed - something. It was blue and green, iridescent like a peacock, and had large, membrane-like, see-through wings. What really caught his attention was the many legs, and huge long needle that was its snout. A tongue flicked out, covered with something red. Or else it was it's natural tongue colour. At the moment, he didn't care, it had been eating his blood! "AAAHHH!" He screamed, at the same time as it trilled loudly, almost in mockery of him, beat its many wings and flew off. "Oh, no, you don't!" he shouted, and chased after it, ignoring his friends and Hoshi's calls. He chased it for many long minutes, and when it finally flew into a vine- covered hole, he zoomed right in after it. It took his eyes many long minutes to adjust to the almost complete darkness, but he gasped when he did. On a rock directly in front of him, lay a long, purple something, its body heaving in and out. It was about half a metre in length, completely purple, with long, blue and white veins covering its entire body. It looked to be in agony, and the slab underneath it was almost its death bed. The bug forgotten, Traywait walked over to the creature. He wondered if he could help it in any way. The creature shuddered, and he swore he heard a gasp for air. As he walked farther in, the creature turned towards him. If anything with that many teeth, suckers and tendrils could look more surprised, he would give it a gold star. He screamed, turned and ran for the entrance, just as it leaped for him, wrapped around his head and slammed itself into his wide open-mouth.  
  
Chapter Done! But all I have time for, since I'm going sailing for the first time this weekend! 


	5. Chapter 5

Star-Trek: Enterprise  
  
Authors Note: I Love Trinidad and Tobago! The best place in the world, incidentally, is Trinidad. I'm going to retire there, I swear. Well, here's the newest chapter. Enjoys! P.S. National British Dive Week, 2-8 September.  
  
Doctor Phlox was very confused. It was about 4 hours - he checked the digital chronometer on the wall - yes, 4 hours since the supposed botched lobotomy. Which, incidentally, he had no memory of. He was still attempting to piece together his memories of the previous night, while he finished his internal scan of Ensign Traywait. Other than his digestion tract seeming a bit full, he could detect no other problems with the Ensign. He placed aside his dermal regenerator, finished, just as the Trip Tucker walked through the sick-bay door. "Hiya, Doc, Archer sent me to see if you'd finished." Trip trailed off. "Are you all right, Captain?" Phlox asked him, tilting his head to the side. "Well, aside from looking like you haven't slept all night, there's these, um, things." he trailed off again, patting the left side of his face. Phlox picked up the mirror on the patient's bedside table, and promptly dropped it. "Good Flummox!" he exclaimed, and retrieved the mirror, stroking his own cheek. There were large black blotches all over the left side of his cheek. His eyes were severely dilated, yet let no extra light in, which was surprising. His eyes were bloodshot, his usually startlingly-blue iris was red, and he looked like he had a severe cerebral cranium bleed. His nose was running continuously, while his skin was dry, parched, and felt like paper. "Where's the trainee doctor?" Trip asked immediately. "Uh, she's asleep at the moment," he replied after placing down the mirror, trying to gain his composure - and maybe even some of his health. "Well, as soon as she arrives for her shift, tell her that you need a check- up. Commander's Orders" He finished sternly. Phlox nodded. "But first, tell me about what you found from your intensive scan." Trip motioned toward Ensign Traywait. "It's very strange, Commander," Phlox said, calling up charts, diagrams, and bio-scans. "Other than a large increase of hormones and a severe decrease of proteins, there seems to be nothing wrong with the Ensign. I've prescribed him some sleeping pills, and some protein-replacement tablets, but other than that, there is nothing more that I should do." He turned to Trip with a flourish. "However, the Ensign has been having some - rather disturbing dreams. They seem to cause fear in him, while calming him at the same time. He should be alright within the next two days, and be ready for active duty in about four to five days, but otherwise - ugh!" On the last word, the Doctor toppled toward Trip, who held him up while the Doctor tried to keep in his stomachs. "Doc, I think I'll confine you to quarters, as whatever you have seems to be catching. First Traywait, now you've gone and fallen for it." Phlox grimaced. "No pun intended." "No pun indeed," coughed the doctor. "I think I'll take your advice." The Doctor stared at Trip very had, his red iris boring into him. Trip didn't notice, but started dragging the Doctor to the door. "Come on, Doc. I'll escort ya." He tugged again, and the doctor shrugged him off. Trip stared back at the Doc, who had spittle dribbling from his mouth. "Doc, you okay?" Trip asked nervously. "Oh, I'm better than okay," growled the Doc, while he advanced toward Trip, his mouth wide open. His voice seemed to be very guttural, almost like it was coming from inside him. "Okay, Doc, I'm going to call security." The Doctor backhanded him, very hard. Trip flew back against the worktable, which the Doctor had only just cleaned up, scattering everything again. "DOC!" he shouted, as the Doc gripped him and flipped him onto the floor, sitting on him and banging his head on the floor. Trip, dazed, looked up into the very wide mouth of the Doc looking down on him. "You are near the top of the hierarchy," he sneered at him, "You will not only be a good incubator, but you will also give me an apt sphere of influence until my next stage in development." "Doc? Are you all right?" Trip asked, knowing the answer, while still struggling. Of course Doc wasn't alright. "Silence!" Doc shouted at him, banging Trip's head on the floor again. "This being is not compatible! You are, and will do well as my next being!" Trip screamed as two long, purple finger-like extensions spread Phlox's mouth wide (A/N: Think Alien/Predator style extensions). Seeing it's opportunity, the alien symbiote pulled itself out of Phlox and into Trip, all in one movement. Trip gagged, coughed, then fell unconscious under Phlox.  
  
Chapter Done! But all I have time for, since I'm going sailing for the first time this weekend! 


End file.
